Upon nursing care of a bedridden aged person or an ailing person (hereinafter, collectively abbreviated as the care-receiver), a moving task of moving the care-receiver from a wheelchair to a bed is a heavy burden on a caregiver. Therefore, in order to reduce the burden, there is a combination bed in which part of the bed can be separated and transformed into a wheelchair (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).
FIG. 8 shows a conventional combination bed 1. A bed surface of the combination bed 1 is composed of three plates of a side bed plate 2, a center bed plate 3, and a side bed plate 4. In order to compose the bed surface, there is a need for moving the center bed plate 3 of a platform truck 5 to a space 3a between the side bed plate 2 and the side bed plate 4. Firstly, the caregiver brings up the side bed plate 4 to the upper side of a bed main body 1a taking a rotation mechanism 1b as a rotation center.
The caregiver moves the platform truck 5 (the center bed plate 3) to the space 3a in a state where the side bed plate 4 is brought up to the upper side of the bed main body 1a. By returning the side bed plate 4 to an original position after moving the platform truck 5 to the space 3a, the combination bed 1 composes the bed surface.
The platform truck 5 separated from the combination bed 1 can also be utilized as a wheelchair. In that case, the center bed plate 3 serves as a seating bottom of the wheelchair.
FIG. 9 is a side view of the platform truck 5. Here, the platform truck 5 has a chair posture change mechanism in order to simply change a posture of the center bed plate 3 from a flat posture to a seating posture. The center bed plate 3 is composed of a back surface portion 3b, a leg portion 3c, and a bottom portion 3d. When the leg portion 3c is inclined in conjunction with inclination of the back surface portion 3b in a state where the bottom portion 3d is made to be a horizontal surface with use of the chair posture change mechanism, the posture of the center bed plate 3 is changed from the flat posture to the seating posture. The platform truck 5 can be utilized as the wheelchair.
In such a wheelchair (the platform truck 5) serving as a part of the combination bed 1, the bottom portion 3d is made to be a horizontal surface so as to change the posture to the flat posture. However, when the bottom portion 3d of the wheelchair is a horizontal surface, downward slippage of a body of the care-receiver is easily caused.
As a countermeasure against the downward slippage of the body of the care-receiver from the wheelchair, a fully-reclining type wheelchair in which a bottom portion of the wheelchair is inclined so as to prevent the downward slippage of the body of the care-receiver is proposed (for example, refer to Patent Document 2).
FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a conventional fully-reclining type wheelchair 6. In the wheelchair 6 shown in FIG. 10, a bottom portion 7b is inclined in such a manner that front seating height (height of the bottom portion 7b on the side of a calf portion 7c) is higher than rear seating height (height of the bottom portion 7b on the side of a back portion 7a). By the inclination of the bottom portion 7b, the downward slippage of the body of the care-receiver is prevented. Further, the back portion 7a is brought down, and all of the bottom portion 7b, the calf portion 7c, and a footrest portion 7d that are coupled by a conjunction link 8 are made to be an identical horizontal surface, so that the posture is changed to the flat posture.
FIG. 11 is a side view of the wheelchair 6 in the flat posture. By utilizing the conjunction link 8, the caregiver can easily change the posture of the wheelchair 6 from the seating posture to the flat posture.
It is considered that a bed is composed of combining such a fully-reclining type wheelchair 6 with a bed main body portion.
As a nursing care bed for providing nursing care to the care-receiver, there is a bed capable of being changed to a back lifting posture or a knee lifting posture.